Man taken off Los Angeles flight for making threat

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A man was taken into police custody after making a bomb threat on a flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, officials said on Sunday.

Spirit Flight 245 left McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas around 5:30 p.m. Saturday but returned shortly after, according to McCarran spokesman Glenn Gardener.

"He made some kind of a threat while in the air and they had to turn around," Gardener said. Airline officials arranged to meet with Las Vegas police at the gate, and the man was taken into custody, Gardener said.

The passengers were taken off the plane as a precaution on and put on another plane to Los Angeles. "Whenever we get a bomb threat we have to screen the aircraft," said Gardener.

Las Vegas police said the man was drunk, according to a KLAS-TV report. A police representative was not immediately available for comment.

The threat was made just one week before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Misty Pinson, spokeswoman for Spirit, said in an e-mail the plane landed normally, and authorities conducted a search and found nothing.